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Online Security tips you should be practicing….but aren’t

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Gone are the days when online activity was very limited to a few and many people found having internet to be a luxury. Technological advancements have seen us accepting the internet so much that it has become a necessity in our daily lives. A lot of users are not as online security savvy as some of the top technology gurus are, but there still needs to be an awareness to show people how vulnerable they are when they use any device linked to the internet.

We will not go into the details of how hackers and even some companies get access to your personal information and use it for their own personal gain. When your data is leaked or compromised it is not just used for fraud purposes. Companies can also leak data for market competition purposes so you the user just become a mere victim in the whole circumstance. We do not mean to overwhelm you so please don’t think that resorting to using a typewriter will solve all your problems.

If you still think that being secure when using your device is just a myth, then we can only tell you that you may as well tell everyone you meet your bank account number and its password. That’s how vulnerable you are when using your device on the internet. You can never fully protect yourself but here are some tips you can use to help mitigate your exposure to the risk. Here are some tips that us regular users can adopt to protect ourselves.

Data Backup; this is probably one of the most crucial steps you can take. A lot of people will just backup their files to an external drive but that is not sufficient enough. What if your external becomes corrupt or gets stolen or lost? There are many other means of backing up your data that don’t involve you owning ten USB drives.

Online backup is a very common practice nowadays and it doesn’t cost a penny. A lot of companies will offer this service for free and the good thing is all your files can be accessed from any location on any device. Such services include Dropbox, GoogleDrive for personal usage and then there are some paid services that cater for personal and business usage like Code42, iDrive just to mention a few.

Passwords; are not regarded highly by a lot of users. Most people think it’s just a procedure to access your accounts or computer systems and hence do not protect their passwords and also do not create a decent password.

We know it gets daunting to have so many passwords and accounts and having to try and remember which password is for which account. You shouldn’t need to sign up for everything that you see online but if you have to there are some password managing tools you can use. Some password managers you can use are LastPass, iPassword, YubiKey just to mention a few.

Use of HTTPS websites; this can help you reduce the amount of risk or vulnerability of your details online. Some websites will already have this feature but others, like FaceBook, will need you to manually set it through account settings. We won’t go into detail about setting this feature up but if you are not that tech savvy all you need to do is look in the url or website address bar and on the address you will see http://.

A site that has https:// instead of http:// is usually a more secure site. There are some tools that can protect you from the internet and do all the work for you but just the basic awareness should do for the average user.

Home networks; if you have internet at home please remember that your modem/router also has a password and user name for it to be able to provide internet access to your devices. A lot of people will just leave the default user name and password in existence and think that is enough to protect their devices from being compromised. It is essential that you change the default user name and password in the router admin panel to provide a bit more security for your home network.

Query everything; if you are online and something does not seem right, it probably isn’t. Nowadays a lot of websites do not prompt you to do things like downloading a file or signing up to something to get access. If this is the case, then try and avoid such sites. Query the website’s intention to sign up or download software for access. Some of the websites want you to sign up or download small softwares so they can gain access to your personal data or device.  Be careful when you also agree to “terms and conditions” as some of the websites have hidden clauses in them. We do not expect you to read all the terms but just be aware and make sure there are no boxes ticked or checked that do not need to be checked.

We have tried to focus on simple non-technical means of practice that an average everyday online user can adopt and turn into habits to help maintain security for their devices and their personal data as well. Put these few tips into practice and you will be a bit safer and at least well prepared when using the internet.

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